The combination of wheat dough, chicken, tomatoes, hard cheese, sour cream, and herbs evokes associations with Mediterranean cuisine—the healthiest in Europe. The advantage of this recipe is the use of the oven: it means that home cooks won’t have to spend time by the stove and can focus on setting the table right after preparing the ingredients.
Ingredients: 250 ml of water, 250 g of pasta, 300 g of chicken fillet, 1 tablespoon of chicken seasoning, 150 g of sour cream, 100 g of hard cheese, 150 g of tomatoes, oil for greasing the baking dish, herbs for garnishing the casserole, salt to taste.
Cut the chicken fillet into pieces, season with salt, sprinkle with chicken seasoning, and mix well.
In a greased baking dish, pour in the dry pasta, layer the prepared chicken fillet on top, and then add the diced tomatoes.
Mix the sour cream with water and add salt. Grate the hard cheese on a large grater. Pour the sour cream mixture over the pasta, chicken, and tomatoes, and sprinkle with the grated cheese.
Cover the dish with foil and place it in an oven preheated to 180°C (350°F) for half an hour. After 30 minutes, remove the foil and return the pasta casserole with chicken and tomatoes to the oven for another 15 minutes to brown the cheese topping.
Once you take this aromatic dish out of the oven, all that’s left is to sprinkle it with fresh herbs and serve it at the table.
Life Hack
By the way, pasta that usually cooks in 10-15 minutes can be prepared in just a minute or even less. To do this, soak it in cold water beforehand. If you cover the pasta with water, drain it after an hour, and then add it to boiling salted water, it will be ready in just a minute. And if you soak the pasta in cold water overnight, it will only take a few seconds to cook in the morning. Despite this “outrageous violation of technology,” the taste of the “express pasta” will be just as good as that of pasta cooked the traditional way. Give it a try!